Thoughts from a Part-Core Gamer

Hey! It’s Friday!

Deep in the throws of summer, it can become hard to keep track of days. Apparently, Friday has sneaked up on me. Luckily, I’ve had plenty to do, so I can pick quickly and give you the rundown on yet another Steam purchase from this sale.

I mentioned before State of Decay, which was a lot of fun, so much so that I blew through it in only a few days. Gunpoint, my second purchase from the sale, was similar, except it was much shorter. Much, much shorter, like “finished it in one sitting” shorter. Of course, your “game playing” sittings may not be 3 or 4 hours like mine sometimes are, but nonetheless, it did NOT meet its Ed Value; I got about 4 hours for 5 bucks.

Those four hours were fun, though. The level of difficulty and scaling up of challenge were very well tuned. The story was nicely thematic, adding to the atmosphere of the game. It played on its own silliness a little; part of the game’s conceit is that you have super-pants that allow you to jump very high and fall safely. Since those pants become a central figure of the investigation in which you’re taking part, the whole reflexive silliness builds on itself nicely.

On top of the platformer aspect of the game, there’s also a puzzle-solving aspect. You use various wires and switches to accomplish tasks like opening doors or shocking guards into unconsciousness through wall sockets. I have no doubt that each level had a variety of approaches one could take to solve it, but, as I usually do, I went for stealthy and nonlethal as often as I could.

I see why it got the very good reviews it got, and I agree with them, but I simply wish there were more content. It’s depressing to be done with both of my Steam purchases before the sale’s even over. Of course, that’s partially a pacing issue on my end, but it’s summer. I’m a teacher. What else do I have to do?

The game partially makes up for its short campaign by having an active modding and content-generating community. If you’re into that sort of thing, I’m sure the longevity of the game could be increased indefinitely, but I tire of sorting through the partially-dones and mostly-lousies to find the really good ones. I already do that for Shadowrun Returns; I’ve no interest in doing it for a second game.

So if you like puzzle platformers like Mark of the Ninja, I’d heartily recommend the game, but be aware that you’re not getting a lot of hours for you money.